Standing on the balcony in early May as laborers try to stretch out their lunch hour, Schalk admits that his design is not without its eccentricities. "It's a little bit kooky in places, but that's what's fun about it," he says, beaming. "I was able to use my film background in a lot of ways, and when I'd come up with something, a lot of times people would go, 'Are you nuts?' But when they saw it, they realized that it worked. Now everyone's excited--even the people on the Englewood town council. One of them came up to me the other day and told me, 'We can't wait for it to open up, because we want to see a show here.'"
Because Schalk has no direct affiliation with either Universal or SFX, the timing of his grand scheme seems terrible, but it may actually be quite good. BGP/CMP is allergic to staging concerts in any facility controlled by other promoters--hence the decision to put on fair-weather shows by Dylan/Simon and 'N Sync in McNichols Arena, not Fiddler's Green, an amphitheater Universal owns. Rather than booking an act with too small a draw for the Fillmore into the Ogden or the Bluebird, then, BGP/CMP may try to bring it to the Gothic, a 700-seater whose capacity falls squarely between those of NIPP's two main spaces. It doesn't seem entirely coincidental that Morris has already toured the Gothic. "A gorgeous place," he declares.
Schalk, an energetic novice who doesn't seem to realize what a shark tank he's entered, appreciates this vote of confidence, but with negotiations for future agreements still ongoing, he's trying not to alienate anyone. "I'd like to work with all of the promoters in town," he says. "That may seem strange these days, but I do."
Back at the Fillmore, the scent of nostalgia hangs heavy in the air. The act scheduled for the May 19 opening is Phish's Trey Anastasio, a performer as close to the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia as BGP/CMP could get without hiring a spiritualist. Moreover, the lobby will include a barrel of apples just like the ones habitues of the San Francisco auditorium used to pass on their way to watch projections of multi-hued gelatin on the wall as the sounds of Jefferson Airplane flew past them. "Take one or two," the sign says, just as it did a long time ago, in a land far, far away. But now it's across from a coat-check room.
The folks at BGP/CMP do everything they can to quash the notion that they're parts of a huge, impersonal corporation mindlessly bent on world conquest. They point out that unlike Universal, which shed most of Fey's loyal employees soon after his departure, BGP/CMP has embraced them--and true enough, Morris's staff includes booker Brent Fedrizzi and production manager Tommy Hauser, a pair of Fey vets who abandoned Universal in order to work with people they'd toiled alongside for years. Even though Universal has been in the region far longer than has Bill Graham Presents, Don Strasburg, the driving force behind Boulder's Fox Theatre, and another eager BGP/CMP recruit, believes that he's part of the home team.
"When Universal came in here, we thought that it was going to bring all the best people from around the market together--Chuck and Brent and everyone," Strasburg says. "And instead they fired everyone and brought people in from the outside. Now, SFX and Bill Graham are great competitors, but they've reached out to the people who have invested the time in the market, and who know this market, and that makes all the difference. They've taken advantage of all these years of experience instead of just going 'Fuck you,' like Universal did."
For his part, Morris clearly loves being in the spotlight that has always fallen on Fey. As the manager of bands like Big Head Todd and the Monsters and Leftover Salmon, he's accomplished plenty on his own, but if SFX swallows up Universal (and who'd bet against it?), he could well become the unquestioned ruler of the Denver concert scene just like his mentor was. But he's been around long enough to know that the crown won't be his simply for the asking. "The war will never be over," he says. "It'll change, but it'll never be over."
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